


I Don’t Know Where You Are

by IAmStoryteller



Series: You Can Always Come Home [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:40:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmStoryteller/pseuds/IAmStoryteller
Summary: Set between S3 and S4 of Lego NinjagoCole deals with his grief over losing Zane maybe not in the most productive of ways.
Relationships: Cole & Zane (Ninjago)
Series: You Can Always Come Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637527
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, new fandom for me.
> 
> It's all my friend's fault. She knows who she is...
> 
> LMAO
> 
> But I binged 11 seasons, all the shorts, the special and the movie in like a month and a half, soooo
> 
> ENJOY

Zane was gone.

And it didn’t feel real to Cole.

The memorial service and statue dedication was nice enough he supposed, but as he, the other ninja, Nya, PIXAL, Sensei Wu and Garmadon and Misako exited the park grounds, Cole missed Zane’s prescence. They hadn’t known each other forever, but they were brothers. Zane died to protect them all. Cole hated not being strong enough. He was the Master of Earth, but his strength failed him.

Nya was busy consoling PIXAL, while Kai hovered nearby his sister protectively and Jay looked like he wanted to say something to Nya. Sensei Garm and Misako were comforting Lloyd. 

It was almost instinct to serach for Zane’s comforting logic.

“Don’t be gone too long, Cole,” said the calm tone of Master Wu.

Cole realized that he had been walking away from his family. Did he know why? He knew that he needed some time alone so he merely nodded at his elderly sensei. 

He walked and walked. Cole found he wasn’t even hungry, which was highly unusual for him. But he knew that when he was grief-striken, food wouldn’t comfort him—extreme activities would take his mind off of his loss. After his mother’s death, he found Wu by rock climbing (or Wu found him) and that was his mother. This was about Zane, the awkward nindroid who was one of the most important people to Cole. 

“Come one, come all and test your strength,” called out a voice.

It startled Cole enough to realize that he wandered into the gaming district of New Ninjago City (AKA Jay’s favorite part of the city). He was in front of an old arcade. It had a strength game that you usually see at amusement parks.

“Hey, you, you look like a strapping young man, care to take a chance, only for a fiver,” said the arcade man.

Cole rolled his eyes, but spotted an Frtiz Donnegan stuffed toy and remembered that Jay really like that comic book. He sighed, handing the man a five, “Alright, give me that.”

The arcade man handed him the hammer and without even using much of his strength, Cole hit the device and the ball shot up to ring the bell. “Winner! Winner!”

Armed with a stupid plushie for Jay, Cole went about to continue his wandering, but suddeny someone was approaching him. It was a forester man, otherwise known as a lumberjack, dressed in work clothes.

“Hey! You’re really strong, ain’t cha? Are ya lookin’ for work? I can use a strong young man like you on my crew,” said the man, pulling a card to hand to Cole. “Call me if you’re interested.”

Cole stared at the card in his hand.

He was a ninja, he already had a job to protect Ninjago. So why did running off the woods and abandoning everything he knew sound like a good idea?


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cole as a lumberjack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda re-purposed the conversation Lloyd and Cole had in S4EP1

Cole was a good lumberjack.

But he missed everyone. He worried about them—how Lloyd was doing being the Green Ninja, if Kai and Jay were staying out of trouble, if Wu’s health was okay, if Misako and Garmadon were getting along again now. Cole still called his dad every week to let him know that Cole was okay.

He really wasn’t okay but it was fine.

“Great day of work, boy-o,” said the foreman, as Cole was handed his day’s pay. Cole’s output of work was three times as much as the average woodsman, and he got paid for it. It wasn’t like he needed to spend it on anything but his five meals a day at the town nearby and his room and board. The town was where the lumberjack and their families lived. Cole got a room at a local inn and the innkeeper made the best chicken pot pies.

“Thanks,” said Cole.

From the worksite, it took Cole only twenty minutes to use his ninja skills to get back to the town. After eating a big dinner, he went to his room and sat on his bed.

He bought stationary and envelopes and stamps, thinking that he should write Kai, Jay and Lloyd, but Cole didn’t have the right words to say to them. He was sure that Kai was probably mad at him for just up and leaving without a word to anyone. Jay was still mad about the whole Nya-perfect-match situation (even though Jay was quite pleased that Cole got him a plushie of Fritz Donnagan). Writing a letter to Nya was awkward, because he was pretty sure that he didn’t like her like that, so he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Writing Sensei Wu didn’t seem advisable unless he wanted a lecture.

And what could Cole possibly say to Lloyd after Cole broke every promise he made to the kid? He did manage one letter to the Green Ninja to let him know where Cole was, just in case the power of the Master of Earth was needed.

Cole sighed.

The team just didn’t feel complete without Zane there. He ran away. It wasn’t like him—ninja never quit. He said it so many times in the short time he was the Black Ninja but it was now in the shadow of the loss of Zane that giving up was the easiest thing to do. 

If Cole had been a stronger person, he would have stayed. He would have stayed to help Kai and Jay process their grief. He’d still be training Lloyd. And he maybe he wouldn’t feel so alone.

The next day at work, Cole got a surprise visitor.

“Hey there, Green Ninja, what are you doing here?”

Cole was hanging in a tree, when Lloyd came out of a nowhere (it was good to see the kid was still training and working as the Green Ninja).

“You need to come back, Cole. Ninjago needs you,” said Lloyd. He took off his green hood and Cole averted his eyes. Lloyd looked so _tired_. There were bags under the kid’s eyes and he was paler than normal. “I need you.”

The guilt festered in his heart that he left. But what were Jay and Kai doing? Did they just abandon the kid too? What a bunch of loser ninja they were turning out to be. Zane would be so disappointed.

“I can’t go back, Lloyd,” said Cole. “I’m good at this job.”

“You’re a great ninja.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine here. Where are Kai and Jay? I’d be sure they’d tag along with you to bug me,” said Cole, fishing for information about his brothers.

Lloyd’s face darkened. “After you left, Jay got a TV show and Kai just got angry and went back to his blacksmith shop for a while until he decided to be a social media celebrity. Cole, just consider it. You always have a place as the Black Ninja, Master of Earth.”

“Oh,” said Cole. And then before he could stop himself, “Listen, I don’t want to be a ninja again, but if you ever want to hang out, I’m open to it.”

Lloyd sighed. “Right. See you around, Cole.” The Green Ninja disappeared, as he was taught.

Cole felt like a horrible person.

So when the next night, Lloyd asked Cole to Ninjago City’s Master Chen’s Noodle House for dinner, just to catch-up, Cole felt obligated to say yes. Besides, he really loved those noodles at that shop. Despite, Jay and Kai being there and clearly angry, they were a good team when thugs came into the shop to rob it.

It turned out that it was a new beginning for the Ninja.

Because Zane was alive but in danger.

Cole needed to rescue Zane and put his family back together. He couldn’t wait to see Zane again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading
> 
> Let me know what you think

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


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